Business Models
Business model canvas vs. Lean Canvas & Storybrand Script for messaging/brand
Templates —https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N3ZB1wzg3qfal2wGyOS6uB6Ix8-fFDhb-1xgOKa28zY/copy
Explainer — https://uigstudio.com/insights/lean-canvas-vs-business-model-canvas-which-should-you-choose
Road to Product Market Fit…
Try to kill your business idea early and often! Doing so can help you get to a valid business concept before you waste time, money, energy. The reality is, all those ‘idea killers’ exist, it’s just better you know them before it’s too late. When you can’t, go for it!
#1 Pre-work: Read ‘The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you‘ to learn what to ask during discovery. I prefer the audio book.
#2 Wedge & TAM Onion bottom-up approach: *Finding clarity & Focus* Capture the most specific slice of the market first, then expand in incredibly specific layers…
Define your market wedge — https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/wedge
Expand with TAM Onion — https://www.ghosh.com/blog/tamonion/
#3 Find the PAIN: Early on, the key is to find and validate the most painful pain… this thread on customer problem rankings was a game changer for us (also why we abandoned our first prototype in Feb; wasn’t the right pain. We simply created a Typeform of our top 15 pain points/hypotheses for people to rank): https://mobile.twitter.com/shreyas/status/1376033582305615873
#4 Validate, validate, validate all hypotheses and assumptions: Here’s our master spreadsheet to track progress, intended as a 8-week sprint – let’s go through it! Make a copy for your use, instructions are sprinkled in comments.
#5 Clarify the vision/value: We honed in on our vision using Airbnb’s 11-Star Experience concept (POC/MVP is 5-Star and our roadmap aims for 7/8-Stars):https://reid.medium.com/how-to-scale-a-magical-experience-4-lessons-from-airbnbs-brian-chesky-eca0a182f3e3
Lastly, before you build or spend money on anything that may resemble a product to launch, find a way to ‘mock up’ or create a concept prototype you can demo to potential customers, get feedback on within minutes, implement their changes immediately and then retest. Rinse/repeat as quickly as possible. Speed to data/learning and shortest time to value is the goal in the early days!
#6 BONUS: Getting your first 1000 users
https://www.first1000.co/
FAQ WORTH SHARING…
How did you make sure you were “passing the mom test” in customer discovery? Did you create interview guides? Did you roleplay the discussions with each other beforehand?
1. Mom Test – Honestly, it just takes practice; so if you’d feel more comfortable roleplaying first, then def start there. But the best way is to just start! I do suggest having a list of questions you want to ask ahead of time, but be flexible so that you can dig deeper when talking to customers. I had ~5 crucial questions per painpoint that I always asked, but listened carefully to keep digging based on what they said. I also always recorded our interviews (with their permission of course!) so I could listen back to what they said, but also for feedback on my interview skills (ie. to hear when I was talking too much, etc.). While talking, I’d note down timestamps to go back and listen to specific points to make it quicker after the fact. Try to complete each interview before moving on to the next one (including added them to the sheet) otherwise it turns into work you’ll likely never get to later. Create a process that works for you and just stick to it!
I’m not sure if it helps, but I added the notes I took while listening to the audiobook here, perhaps you can use it to craft your own core questions: Take a look at our discovery questions
In the product market fit spreadsheet, what’s the difference between the “painpoint statements” (Hypotheses tab, rows 2-17) and the “hypotheses” (rows 18+)?
2. Think of the bottom section as all your notes and raw data and the top is the roll-up report. Hope this helps, but also happy to chat through it…
– I used rows 18+ to track any and all hypotheses/key assumptions that (a) we assumed and wanted to validate (b) ideas uncovered as “needs” during our discovery sessions (c) showed up as emotionally charged statements made during interviews or (d) user stories we thought we’d need to solve for.
– The columns starting at E20 were for interviews. When an interviewee validated one or more, we’d add points next to it in that column. For example, column E would relate to 1 interview and we’d add points each time that customer validated a hypothesis for us on the list. If they said something that created a new hypothesis, we’d add it to the bottom; etc. Some hypotheses we assumed were never validated.
– We then would review all hypotheses together and condense them into “final” pain statements at the top (2-17)
– The “final” pain statements were then used in our Customer Pain Statement Rankings survey.
– CPSR results were noted in columns starting in E3 (each column was someone who took the survey). We’d note down the numerical results for each CPSR participant at the top, then average the total for each pain statement (row) in column X.
– For easy viewing, we’d then simply sort the Pain Statement averages (column X) so we’d have our painpoints listed in order of most > least painful. This helped us focus on the most painful pain.
When you say you were validating “assumptions,” what kinds of assumptions? Were these more tied to the pain points (e.g., how much a grower would be willing to pay to resolve the pain point), or other types of assumptions (e.g., does the grower have a smartphone and use apps)?
3. Both. Here are a couple exercises I used in Founder Institute that helped get us started. Feel free to use these instead – honestly the best process is whatever works for you 🙂
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121AcZhws8zh77hgRjgxq-9eDTxmbd77-A8vC3CCm_84/copy
#2 (Key Assumptions) For your remaining ideas identify at least three Key Assumptions that you are making for your Customer Problem or Problems to be real. For example, Key Assumptions may be ‘small business owners are willing to pay for legal templates’ or ‘college students are willing to install and use a new app to tell friends their location.’ Write a title for each Key Assumption, and then write a few sentences about each Key Assumption. Email your Key Assumptions to your Working Group and collect multiple pieces of feedback. Write a synopsis of the peer feedback as a bulleted list under each Key Assumption. (2 Hours)
#3 (Comprehensive Customer Interviews) Develop a longer series of customer interview questions based on your Initial Interviews and Key Assumptions. Write at least ten open-ended customer interview questions for each Customer Problem. For each Customer Problem, do a detailed 30 minute interview with at least 5 customers, at least 2 of whom you have not interviewed before, for a total of at least 10 customers, at least 4 of whom are new. See if you can select these additional 2 customers for each Customer Problem to resemble your Identified Lead Customers. Remember to listen for negative feedback, and do not let people be ‘nice’ and tell you only what you want to hear. Write the name of the 10+ individuals interviewed and a one sentence description of their background. Then, provide a bulleted list of any positive or negative key insights about each Customer Problem gained from the interview. (7 Hours)